The BBC's Washington correspondent Gary O'Donoghue told the Today programme about the attack on his cameraman

A BBC cameraman was assaulted in an 'incredibly violent attack' as President Donald Trump was accused of whipping his rally into a 'frenzy' against the media in Texas.

Washington correspondent Gary O'Donoghue, who is blind, said his cameraman Ron Skeans was filming the rally in El Paso.

Describing what unfolded, he said a Trump supporter mounted the press gallery and pushed the camera into his colleague, before continuing to push Skeans.

'It was an incredibly violent attack. Fortunately our cameraman is fine, he is made of stern stuff,' O'Donoghue told the Today programme.

Footage captured from Skeans' camera was posted to Twitter by O'Donoghue and shows the shot focused on Trump before jolting away.

As the camera appears to visibly bounce around for around 10 seconds, the screen then focuses on a man in a red 'Make America Great Again' cap who is being restrained by another man in a black t-shirt.

'This is a constant feature of these rallies - a goading of the crowds against the media,' O'Donoghue added.

'I have been spat at before, they hurl abuse at American colleagues in particular.'

President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the El Paso County Coliseum in El Paso, Texas on Monday

Footage captured by a journalist in the press gallery shows the Trump supporter yelling obscenities at the media

He is eventually escorted off the stage as members of the press try to rearrange themselves following his alleged attack

O'Donoghue said Trump's 2020 election campaign, which he thinks has begun, will be as 'hostile and ill-tempered and divisive as the one we saw last time'.

The BBC's Washington Editor Eleanor Montague was also standing in the press gallery and said: 'The crowd had been whipped up into a frenzy against the media by Trump and other speakers all night.'

A BBC spokeswoman said Skeans was 'violently pushed and shoved by a member of the crowd' as he covered the rally.

'The man was removed by security and Ron is fine. The president could see the incident and checked with us that all was OK,' she said.

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'It is clearly unacceptable for any of our staff to be attacked for doing their job.'

Speaking to a packed stadium that holds about 8,000 in El Paso, Trump slammed the 'dishonest media.'

He had a field day ripping into Beto O'Rourke - the former south Texas Democrat - who was holding a counter demonstration nearby.

Trump mocked the size of O'Rourke's crowd and called the 46-year-old 'a young man who's got very little going for himself, except he's got a great first name.'

The President, speaking on a stage flanked by two large red 'Finish the Wall' signs, made it clear why he came to the border.

The Trump supporter was held back as he shouted 'F**k the media' at members of the press

Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke speaks to a crowd of supporters at a ball park close to where Trump's rally was being held following a 'March for Truth' in El Paso

'A wall is a very good thing, not a bad thing,' he told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in an interview after his rally. 'It's a moral thing, to put it in the opposite terms. We don't even say build the wall anymore.

'We say finish the wall because we built a lot and we are renovating a tremendous amount of stuff that was really in bad shape but it had good structure. So we are saying finish the wall. Walls are very important.'

In freewheeling remarks at his rally, Trump also trashed the 'Green New Deal,' but didn't single out its most prominent backer, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – although he bashed Democrats generally.